2 Weeks Old

Here we are at Jacob's second week of living in the outside world. Little Man is doing great! He had a check up on Friday and weighed in at 5 lbs 9 ounces (1 ounce up from birth and 4 ounces in one week).

He has been sleeping a lot better too. The doctor's first question upon entering the room was how much sleep are Jennifer and I getting. We must have looked fantastic. She suggested that after Jacob's evening feast that Jennifer go to bed and I give him a bottle at the next feeding. I stay away from the bedroom with the monitor and do a little TCB (taking care of business) until 2 am when Jennifer gets up to feed him then and then at 6 am. Jennifer gets a lot more consecutive sleep and I get sleep period. On Christmas Day we started a new schedule with him too so between that and our sleep shift plan, it has been going quite well.

He really is a good little baby. The times that he has been up at night were because of tummy problems. Not a whole lot bothers him otherwise. He is very content and happy. He began holding up his head for about 5 seconds at a time and can move it left and right. He has some good leg strength too. So that is the latest report, now here are some new pics!

Christmas 2007

They don't call it the most wonderful time of the year for nothing. As Jennifer and I enjoyed one last 'plentiful' Christmas from each other, Jacob was visited by the "S Man" (Santa not Superman...though that would be really cool). I must say, for only being around for a few days Jacob really stocked up!

Anyway, here are all of our pictures from Christmas Eve and Day 2007! I am sure there will be more between now and next Tuesday, but if not Jacob hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years Eve!

A Father's Love

Every human faces trails and adversities in their life. Hopefully when it is all said and down, we can look back and learn from it. A week ago, my wife and I welcomed into this world our first child. He weighed in at only 5 lbs 8 oz but seemed healthy. About 14 hours after he was born though, he began to experience problems with his breathing. His respiratory rate would sky rocket and plummet in the course of one minute. He was eventually taken up to the neo-natal unit (the intensive care unit for babies) and hooked up to oxygen, an IV and monitors. Obviously a stressful site for any parent.

The next day as I was getting ready, I began/continued to pray that he would improve and be able to come home soon. I thought of him connected to all those different things and how much trouble he was having breathing. Then I began to think God for all the prayers He had already answered. For the baby, for a healthy pregnancy, for a fast delivery, for good doctors and nurses who were taking care of him.

It was then that I began to ponder how God let His son endure such pain. He sent Jesus into this world knowing the horrendous pain He would endure. I could no longer fathom how a Father would allow their son to face such suffering. Not just the agony of the cross, but to take on all the sin of the world and its punishment. The perfect Son of God....born so small and innocent would one day be ridiculed, beaten, whipped up to the point of death, had nails driven through his wrists and feet, spit upon, and hated. I prayed asking how God was able to do that. All I could think was if it were in my power I would never let any harm came to my child. I love him too and to see him in such pain would kill me. I would do anything to take his place.

Then my eyes were opened to a truth Ialready knew, but now could fully understand. God does love His son, yes. But God loves us too. We are God's sons and daughters as well, and He could no longer watch us live in such pain and darkness. God did what most parents can only think about doing in that situation...He took our place. He took our sin, our punishment and our death and gave us the opportunity to wipe the slate clean. That is how much God loves His children. He loved us enough to take our place.

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:11-13

See, while Christ's death and resurrection does cover everyone’s sin, not all will be forgiven. We all must choose to accept this gift. We choose through believing that Christ is God's son, that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cross and rose from the grave three days later. Knowing that Christ paid the price for our sins, we must ask Him for forgiveness. He will freely give this gift; you must simply believe and trust in Him. I can offer anyone a free gift, but it doesn't mean you have to accept it.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that your greatest gift will be from your Father.

Originally Posted @ Robert's (New) Land

Transitioning

Things are still going well here. Little Man is trying his hardest to get use to no sleep...oh wait, that's us. He sleeps really well during the day, but obviously has his A.M. and P.M. confused. We have had two late nights so far.

His doctor appointment went really well. He still weighs 5.5 which is good. Better than losing weight. The little stinker slept through the entire ride there, the check up, the visit with Jen's co-workers, and the ride home.

He is a very happy and alert baby who loves kisses from mommy and daddy. Most of all, he is a cutie that hardly cries. I've of course posted some more pictures for you all. I included some pictures we took of the snow outside. I'd normally post them at my other blog but know most of you don't go there, thus you ave to work thru them here to see Jacob :)

We were able to come home today from the hospital! Jacob is doing well and now we are all just trying to adjust to this newest chapter of our lives. Tomorrow I need to go buy Jacob some premmie (sp?) clothes because the porr guy was swallowed up by what had already been bought for him.

Unfortnatly, I am beyoned exhausted so this update is short. I mainly wanted to post some new pictures. I will try and put captions on them soon.

Day 3: Back in the Act

Little Jacob had a much better day today. We went up this morning and he was all ready for breakfast. He fed extremely well and did so for about 40 minutes. We came back down to the room and weren't here even 20 minutes before they called and said he was hungry again! He is still off his IV and Oxygen and his respiratory rate is continuing to improve.

I headed to the house today and was greeted with a nice thick layer of frozen solid ice in our drive way. I spent a few hours chipping through that. It was great because I could barely get the car in. Luckily I was far enough in that I wasn't sticking out into the street, but I wasn't going anywhere else. By the time I was done, I had soaked through two shirts and the winter coat I was wearing. I was glad that I went home and found it yesterday though instead of when we bring him home. I grabbed us a few extra outfits while there and got back to the hospital around 4:00.

This time I was greeted by my little boy. They had released him from NICU and Jennifer had just finished feeding him. As I mentioned before, he has been really hungry. He would sleep just a little while before waking back up to eat. I later found out from the nurse that the antibiotics in his system make him an eating "madman". So that should wear off soon. Jen will be feeding him throughout the night. We are still waiting on the results from his cultures which will come in at 1am. If those are negative, then we should be able to go home tomorrow!!

Not many pictures today I am afraid. I took 2, but you can't really see him in either. Since we were in our room, I did more video instead. I won't be able to put that on here till 1) we are home and 2) until I have time to download, edit and format it. I am sure when we head home though there will be plenty of pictures to post!

UPDATE: It is now a little after 5am. I took Jacob down the nursery around 9:30 after being fed and he was returned to us at 11:00, ready for more grub! Jen fed him and I changed him and put some fresh clothes and linens on him and returned him to the nursery. We figured he'd be back shortly, but to our surprise we woke up around 4:15 and hadn't seen him in a while. I headed down to the nursery and Jacob had been sleeping since I dropped him off. He had just started to stir when I arrived in fact. So were we glad for the few uninterrupted hours of sleep. He is eating pretty well as I type. The cultures came back negative too so we will hopefully be out of here before lunch!! Negative cultures also resulted in them taking his IV needle out of his hand. They had left that part in just in case. He was very happy to be rid of it.

Day 2: Natal Intensive Care Unit

Jacob's second day was spent in the Neo-Natal Unit which is one floor above us. As mentioned in the last post, he was taken up there around 1 am so they could monitor his breathing. They took a chest X-Ray and there was fluid in his lungs. This is more than likely from a delayed transition. Most of that fluid usually comes out during labor...little Jacob was just too anxious to join mom and dad. Probably cause he knows how much fun we are.

He still had problems eating until his 11 am feeding when he ate half an ounce of formula. Then at 2 pm feeding he ate 30 cc (out of 40) which I think was 1 1/2 ounces (or maybe just one ounce) and kept it down. So that plus his IV is very good. They have taken him off the oxygen and are winging him off the IV. If his next feeding at 6 goes well the nurse said he will get to come down for a visit! So that made us happy. Breathing is doing better. The rate still jumps here and there but it is much improved.

Not sure when we will get to head home. I am guessing Wednesday or Thursday, but it all depends on Little Man. I'd rather him be 100% than be at home. We will be able to stay until he is, probably in our same room.

UPDATE: The above was typed around 4pm. We have since been upstairs twice and Jacob keeps improving. I fed him another ounce of formula and he was very alert and seemed happy (happy as a baby can be anyway). Jen rocked him to sleep and then a short while later we took some friends up to see him and he was still doing well. I will post another update tomorrow.

Day 1: More Pictures

Jacob's first full day is in the books and it was a busy one. He is currently up in the neo-natal unit (they took him up around 1 am). He still has some fluid in his lungs and his respiratory rate keeps going up so they wanted to give him just a little oxygen. They will keep monitoring him up there for the rest of the day. He also has an IV to feed on so his little body won't have to stress too much to eat. The doctor says he is just taking his time to transition from womb life to the outside world.

We visited him around 6 this morning and he seemed fine, just hooked up to a bunch of things. His color was really good and shortly before we left he woke up and was very responsive to us. We were able to sleep some last night, but aren't caught up yet. Stress and sleep don't usually work well together.

Check back here for more updates. For now, here are just a few more pictures I was able to take yesterday before the excitement began.

PS - His hair looks red in the pictures but is actually very blond. The flash seems to give it a red tint.

Jacob's Arrival!

Quick Hit: Jennifer woke up after 30 minutes of sleep at 11:30 pm having a very painful contraction. We timed it out and they were going from 4 to 6 minutes apart. I loaded the car up and called the doctor. They said we could wait awhile, but we went ahead and left. Started snowing as we arrived.

Jennifer was dialated to 2 cm still and we thought we'd be there a loooong time. 1 hour later and still no change (just horrible contractions). 1 hour after that and surprise, she was 9.5 cm. The doctor could barely get his gloves on before little Jacob came into our world at 4:54 a.m.

Baby and mom are both doing great. He weighs 5.8 lbs, is 19 inches long, and is currently receiving his first bath. We still haven't slept and are currently fielding a few phone calls and eating breakfast (why does hospital bacon taste so stinking good???). Anywho, I just wanted to get pictures up real fast so everyone can see this beautiful baby.

We are at Newton Wellsley Hospital in room 565. More updates/pictures to come.

Week 38

Well there was a major change this week at the doctor's office. Jennifer is now dilated (2) and we set a date to induce (December 18). Of course there is still the very real possibility that he will come before that. I'll do my best to keep you all posted on here. I do guarantee that I will post pictures on this blog the day he is born (the hospital is wireless) so you will all be able to see him right away. I will post video on here as well but that may not be till we get home as I will want to do it on the desktop. This blog will also be my way of informing others of his stats (weight, etc) so feel free to pass along this web site if anyone is asking for pictures. Speaking of pics, to the left is probably the last pregnant picture of Jen and Jacob!

Week 37

These pictures are actually from 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I just recently received them. They are the only pictures we have from any of her showers and they were taken on a cell phone so quality isn't that great, but it is better than nothing.

We have another doctor's appointment this afternoon so we will be sure to update everyone of how that goes. Jennifer has been having more contractions with more severity, but they are still irregular.

Also I noticed most of you never looked at the previous post so be sure to check it out too :)